Reconfiguring drives to maximize performance

KingConrail76

New member
I am looking for opinions on how to best reconfigure my system hard drives to maximize performance of Tane, without affecting my graphics and modeling software's performance.

Current config:
C:\ = WD 150Gb 10,000 rpm boot drive with Win7-64 and all other programs except Trainz .. 70% full
D:\ = DVD
E:\ = WD 500Gb 7200 rpm .. Trainz10, downloaded content, and my content .. 85% full
F:\ = WD 500Gb 7200 rpm .. Trainz12 .. 95% full

I have a new WD 2Tb 7200 rpm drive to add, or replace one of the above ...
Does Tane run better with both folders on the same drive, or is there no performance loss by having Content on a "storage" drive?
Does Tane run better if the program folder is on my system boot/Win7 drive, or is there no prrformance loss having the Tane program folder (or both program and content folders) on a "storage" disk?
If all my mb sata ports are 3Gb/s, do the drives need to be on any specific port to be primary MBR drive, or is that only configured in bios as boot order, and in Windows Drive Manager as the bootsble disk ..generally speaking? (I will read my MB manual before mounting).
WD says that to use my new 6Gb/s drive in my 3Gb/s system, I can jump pins 5 and 6 on the drive, but no jumper shunt is included. -Do I HAVE to jump those pins, or will my mb sata controller automatically negotiate a 3Gb/s speed?

Thanks in advance.
 
I appreciate the links you posted. they did have some good information.

https://neosmart.net/forums/threads...ws-7-insists-on-trying-to-boot-from-it.11874/

I think this article will clear up part of your ques on Selecting proper Sata Drive designation wanted.

This seemed to focus more on multi-boot config situations, where-as, I'm pretty cemented to Windows 7 and don't really need that ability.
-I'll look more on the WD forums for info on the 'need' for the jumper @ 3Gb/s speeds.

https://forums.auran.com/trainz/archive/index.php/t-48597.html

And this one though a little dated discusses different Drive setup on how Trainz works.........

Hope this helps.

Again, good information, and I may have looked at that thread when I set up the two 500GB drives for TS10 and TS12, but too dated for TANE performance/drive location.

Thank you for your input.
 
Would you consider solid state drives? I've heard it said many times that the greatest performance increase comes when Trainz is put on an SSD instead of a rotating disk drive.
 
There is very little frame rate performance gain by having faster drives. In the order of 1% with an SSD. If you use permon you'll see that TAN doesn't use the drives heavily. You can use 6 Gb/sec drives on a 3 Gb/sec motherboard. The system will figure it out.

With physical disk drives the best thing to do is keep them 25% or more free. SSDs are different. If you can split the traffic between physical drives then you get less head movement and that means faster speeds. So stick the TANE program folder on one drive and the content on the other.

The one thing SSDs give you is faster scenery pop ups and for that reason many people like them.

I'd stay with the 10,000 rpm drive for the operating system but I'd move other software off on to other drives. If you have room keep all the drives. If not replace one 500 mb drive with the 2 gig drive.

Think what you need to back these drives up. With a 2 gig drive and two 500 mb drives you probably need a 4 gig external drive to back up to and keep a system image on. If it was me I'd keep two external back up drives and disconnect them when the back up had finished.

Cheerio John
 
SATA has an auto negotiation so you don't need to jumper any pins. I've got an ageing WD 2TB Black drive and I don't think it has any jumper pins.

I just bought a Seagate Firecuda 2TB SSHD to replace my WD and it is capable of 6Gb/s but my SATA ports are only SATA 3. It works fine. I'm thinking of upgrading my PC later this year but will wait until the Spectre/Meltdown mess is sorted.

I have multiple TANE installations on my Firecuda and on an SSD and they all work fine. I don't put any Trainz stuff on my boot SSD except for the user data stuff that points towards the various installations.
 
The early SATA 3 drives had jumpers to restrict them to SATA 2 although they didn't seem to be required, if there are any, safe to ignore them.

I use:
240GB SSD for the OS
480GB SSD for the main TANE install
2TB 7200 RPM for data , content creating stuff and other Trainz installs
4TB 5900 RPM for backups (ripped from a defective Seagate NAS)
4TB 5900 RPM USB External for backups (Synced with the internal one and switched off when not in use)

For info, as I tested it TANE runs nicely on a 5900 RPM drive just takes a bit longer to load routes etc.

TANE install plus my Content creating folders backed up daily to both backup drives using Create Synchronicity
OS drive imaged weekly using Macrium Reflect Free, again to both Backups.

To add the backup drives are also used for backing up the other 2 PC's as well via my LAN.
 
There is very little frame rate performance gain by having faster drives. In the order of 1% with an SSD. If you use permon you'll see that TAN doesn't use the drives heavily. You can use 6 Gb/sec drives on a 3 Gb/sec motherboard. The system will figure it out.

With physical disk drives the best thing to do is keep them 25% or more free. SSDs are different. If you can split the traffic between physical drives then you get less head movement and that means faster speeds. So stick the TANE program folder on one drive and the content on the other.

The one thing SSDs give you is faster scenery pop ups and for that reason many people like them.

I'd stay with the 10,000 rpm drive for the operating system but I'd move other software off on to other drives. If you have room keep all the drives. If not replace one 500 mb drive with the 2 gig drive.

Think what you need to back these drives up. With a 2 gig drive and two 500 mb drives you probably need a 4 gig external drive to back up to and keep a system image on. If it was me I'd keep two external back up drives and disconnect them when the back up had finished.

Cheerio John

SATA has an auto negotiation so you don't need to jumper any pins. I've got an ageing WD 2TB Black drive and I don't think it has any jumper pins.

The early SATA 3 drives had jumpers to restrict them to SATA 2 although they didn't seem to be required, if there are any, safe to ignore them.

Thank you, very much, Gentlemen.

Unfortunately, It may all be moot, as I bent a few pins on my chip while replacing my heatsink, and won't know the result until I put it back together and power up.
If the chip is toast, I'll likely move to an Intel chipset, and modern MB.
 
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